Microbiomania and "Overselling the Microbiome"

I love microbiome research. I have been doing it for 10+ years. Microbiomes are both incredibly interesting and important. They play roles in all sorts of aspects of the planet including many aspects of the biology of multicellular organisms like plants and animals. And I personally believe that we will find more and more important connections between microbiomes and the health and well being of plants, animals, other organisms, and ecosystems.

However many people oversell the microbiome (something I call "microbiomania") and misrepresent what we know about it now. Here are some posts on this topic.

4 comments:

This is fantastic; I started a report of the microbiome a few weeks ago for an undergraduate course, and was quickly wrapped up in the many miraculous claims and insinuations all over the literature and news. This blog kind of brings it full circle; Thank you!